Social Objects, and the Participatory Museum

The beginning of my study time today was spent trying to decide what is most important to know from the remainder of information in the book about objects in the museum. Well, for whatever reason, I just couldn't seem to find one good thing I could really embellish upon in the text. I went through the introduction to Part V, trying to get a good feel for the content of each article. The thing is, none of these articles talked explicitly about the objects and their presentation, which is kind of what I was looking for and what I want to know about. Actually none of them speak directly to anything about objects, but rather behavior of museums and some parts were about objects. I found some interesting things in general from this section, but categorizing in my brain just wasn't happening. Although I skimmed a lot of chapters in the text book, I ended up spending most of my time today reading chapters from  The Participatory Museum by Nina Simon, which are all online (you can see them if you click the hyperlink). The chapter that pertained most to object presentation was Chapter 4, and that's what I'll talk about here. 

"Imagine looking at an object not for its artistic or historical significance but for its ability to spark conversation."I thought it was interesting how she looked at objects in life, not just in museums, as opportunities for shared experience. I think these "social objects" are one of my favorite parts of life. Objects that you can refer back to from certain places or experiences and whoever else was there with you will understand the feeling behind it. Love that. She discusses the reasoning and affect of bringing more social objects into the museum. It draws people in, and lends itself to a more immersive experience. Nina Simon's book in general talks about the museum experience and how to make it more dynamic, and well, participatory. She is an exhibit designer and museum consultant, so it makes sense that she would care about object presentation and the effect this has on patrons. She provided great insight on how to make museum experiences more community-centered.